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Joe Louis Walker

San Francisco's Fillmore District of the 1960s is known worldwide as the birthplace of psychedelic rock. But it was also a hotbed of modern electric blues, and it was the place where one of the genre's top musical trailblazers, Joe Louis Walker, was born, raised and schooled. The award-winning guitar slinger, deeply soulful vocalist and gifted songwriter has been releasing groundbreaking music since 1986, but his career goes all the way back to the mid-1960s.

The New York Times raves, "Walker is a singer with a Cadillac of a voice. He delivers no-nonsense, gutsy blues. His guitar solos are fast, wiry and incisive, moaning with bluesy despair." According to Living Blues, he is "one of today's modern musical masters." Rolling Stone simply calls him "ferocious."

Nowhere is that more apparent than in Walker's Alligator Records debut, Hellfire. Hellfire burns with rock energy and intense blues feeling. Walker, who wrote or co-wrote seven of the CD's eleven tracks, says it's the hardest rocking and most deeply soulful album of his career. His blistering blues guitar playing and gospel-tinged vocals effortlessly blend throughout the album. From the psychedelic overtones of the title track (a harrowing and personal tale of the struggle of good versus evil) to the slow, simmering and pleading What's It Worth to the Stones-y rocker Ride All Night, Hellfire is the work of a man possessed.

Hellfire burns with rock energy and intense blues feeling. Walker, who wrote or co-wrote seven of the CD's eleven tracks, says it's the hardest rocking and most deeply soulful album of his career. His blistering blues guitar playing and gospel-tinged vocals effortlessly blend throughout the album. From the psychedelic overtones of the title track (a harrowing and personal tale of the struggle of good versus evil) to the slow, simmering and pleading What's It Worth to the Stones-y rocker Ride All Night, Hellfire is the work of a man possessed.

Living Blues says, "His fretwork is indelibly stamped with his own trademark blend of emotional heat and impeccable precision-even at his most flamboyant, Walker sounds as if he's playing ideas, not just notes." A bluesman of immense talent and drive, Walker tours constantly, playing concerts and festivals across the globe. Raining fire with his guitar and spitting brimstone with his vocals, Hellfire begins a brand new chapter in Joe Louis Walker's already legendary career. Artist Official Website Audio/Video Clips